What History Teaches: Defining Resistance
About the Event
In the context of the Holocaust and World War Two, the word “resistance” is generally used to describe organized efforts to overthrow or at least to undermine Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Only a handful of people engaged in such resistance. They include dramatic examples like Oskar Schindler, a member of the Nazi Party and an industrialist who saved around 1,200 Jewish people during the Holocaust through subterfuge and bribery; Claus von Stauffenberg, a colonel who led an attempt to assassinate Hitler in July 1944; and the ‘White Rose’ student group, some of whom were executed after being caught distributing anti-Nazi leaflets. But ‘resistance’ can be defined in other ways.
In this new What History Teaches webinar, Dr. Luke Berryman will dive deep into the history books to explore forgotten acts of nonconformity, noncompliance, and protest, with the goal of reshaping our understanding of resistance and its meanings for today.
About the Speakers
Luke Berryman
Luke Berryman is the Founder of The Ninth Candle, a nonprofit organization that works with schools across the United States to improve Holocaust education. He holds undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral degrees from the University of Oxford, Boston University, and King’s College London, respectively. His Ph.D. thesis was on the use of classical music in Nazi propaganda. Luke has worked in various roles in universities and K-12 schools in Britain and the United States. His first book, Resisting Nazism, was published by Bloomsbury in January 2026.
Purchase Luke’s book, Resisting Nazism
Nazism has always faced resistance: from the German artists who caricatured the Nazis in the 1920s, or the man who infiltrated the SS to try and expose the Holocaust in the 1940s, or the people who uncovered former Nazis as part of a groundbreaking documentary in the 1970s. Resisting Nazism is the first book to connect such stories, painting a vivid picture of resistance to hatred and extremism across the generations.
Built on original interviews with the people involved, their families, and their colleagues, as well as deep research, this book is a response to far-right populist threats and antisemitism that increasingly resemble the Nazi past. Each of its twelve chapters tells a different story of resistance. Sometimes, these stories involve incredible daring and enormous risk – but they also show that resistance can begin with something as simple as writing your ideas down or showing solidarity with the oppressed.